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Working with and for people with intellectual and developmental disabilities for over 50 years.

Tuesday, September 1, 2009

NCGA: Legislative Update 2 - The Arc of NC Legislative Agenda Wrap Up

Our second edition of the Legislative Update: The Arc of NC Legislative Agenda will look at a bill designed to bring more transparency to single stream funded local management entities. This bill also protects funding on HUD projects for people with developmental or intellectual disabilities.

-The first section of this bill requires LMEs that use single stream funding to on a bi-annual basis to receive to report on the allocation of service dollars and receive public comment during a regularly scheduled board of directors meeting.

-The second section focuses on HUD group homes and apartments. The General Assembly appropriates state funding to group homes to be used in conjunction with federal HUD funding. After the biennial this funding can be moved. However, in some cases the removal of our state funding to these group homes and apartments can jeopardized our agreement with the federal matching money and the HUD contracts.

This section of the bill will require LMEs to seek approval for the reduction in funding from the Department of Health and Human Services prior to adjusting any funding associated with HUD group homes or apartments.

-The final section of this bill will direct the Department of Health and Human Services to analyze the effectiveness of single stream funding in LMEs that have been working with single stream for a year or more. These findings will be reported to the Joint Legislative Oversight Committee on Mental Health, Developmental Disabilities, and Substance Abuse Services as well as the Health and Human Services Appropriations Subcommittee in the House and Senate.

Vote History: This bill passed the House 117 in favor 0 opposed and the Senate 45 in favor 0 opposed. The governor signed this bill into law on June 29, 2009.

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The Arc of North Carolina 2011 Legislative Agenda.

The Arc of North Carolina advocates for and with families and people with cognitive and developmental disabilities. We believe that the following legislative agenda promotes our goals of advocacy, inclusion, and access to the communities we live in.

The Arc of North Carolina Proposed Policy Agenda 2011

Budget:

The Arc of North Carolina understands the current budget constraints that the state of North Carolina finds itself in due to the economic recession. During this critical time it is more important than ever to protect needed services for people with developmental and intellectual disabilities.We encourage the members of the General Assembly to do the following things to protect the integrity of community-based services for people with developmental and intellectual disabilities in our state.

No additional cuts to state-funded services for people with developmental disabilities.

Apply for 1915 (i) State Plan services for adults with developmental disabilities targeting supports that currently utilize state general fund appropriations and utilizing those funds a Medicaid match.

Add an additional CAP-DD Waiver for people with developmental disabilities who have significant behavioral and or medical needs.

Raise the Supports Waiver limit to 25 thousand dollars.

Utilize the Supports Intensity Scale as an initial eligibility tool for entrance into the CAP waivers with a reconsideration process utilizing other information.

Manage all of developmental disability services from a state system utilizing existing local structures where appropriate.

Housing:Fair Housing Act Amendment.

This legislation prohibits discrimination on the basis or receipt of housing assistance. Many people with disabilities receive housing assistance. This legislation if passed would assist in opening more housing opportunities to the disability community.

Education:Study ways to allow students with developmental disabilities to access current courses in our community college system. Included in this study we must look at ways to offer real job skill training to students with developmental and intellectual disabilities.

The Arc of North Carolina

Welcome to The Arc of North Carolina's official policy blog. The Arc has been serving people with disabilities for more than 50 years. In an effort to reach out to our statewide community about issues that effect us we have established this blog.

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Opinions expressed on this blog are not necessarily the opinion of the The Arc of North Carolina or The Arc of the United States.The Arc of North Carolina is a non-profit and non-partisan organization. It does not endorse candidates or political parties.